Forum Tries To Bring Death-penalty Debate Into The Pews

Pope John Paul II has done what he can, in large ways and small, to end capital punishment.

The Dalai Lama has spoken out repeatedly against the death penalty.

Dozens of religious denominations, organizations and institutions in the United States have decried state-sanctioned killing of criminals, in reams of resolutions.

The Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago recently called on Gov. George Ryan to make permanent Illinois' moratorium on executions.

Increasingly, clerics have taken to pulpits and podiums to denounce the practice.

With the exception of the Southern Baptist Convention and a handful of other politically conservative organizations, religious leaders in the nation, the state and the city have approached unanimity in their opposition to capital punishment.

But for all that vociferous leadership on the issue, the rank-and-file members of religious congregations have remained remarkably quiet.

A moral issue if there ever was one, the death penalty has been discussed mostly as a law enforcement tool, a budget item, a racial wedge or a judicial thermometer. And the laypeople, with a few notable exceptions, have sat out the debate.

This Sunday, Joe Monahan hopes, that ice will begin to crack.

Monahan, a member of St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Evanston, has been raising questions about the death penalty before his parish for years.

As a string of last-minute reprieves and the resulting moratorium gave those questions a critical, public momentum, Monahan began to wonder about getting other Catholic churches involved in some sort of a rally or forum on the death penalty.

And then he wondered, why not ask other churches and synagogues and organizations of all sorts to get together on this?

The result floored him. Publicized largely by word-of-mouth and personal invitation, the forum he organized began attracting interest--pent-up interest, perhaps--that lived up to, then surpassed Monahan's hopes. By Thursday evening, 97 sponsors had signed up: 33 churches and synagogues, 10 campus ministries, 21 individuals and 33 activist organizations, 16 of them religious in nature.

The forum, called Death Sentence 2000, begins at 1 p.m. Sunday at the First United Methodist Church in Evanston, chosen for the 1,400-person capacity of its sanctuary. The 4 1/2 hours that follow will be filled with sessions and speeches by ground-level warriors in the fight against the death penalty, as well as by victims' family members, prisoners' family members, clergy and a smattering of politicians.

But Monahan hopes the meat of the event will be the passage of a three-part resolution. If participants agree, it will call on Ryan to extend the moratorium on executions permanently. It will support a bill before Congress that would suspend federal executions. And it will ask believers to work within their own congregations to mobilize opposition to the death penalty.

If all goes according to plan, forum participants would take the resolution back to their own congregations, and from there to neighboring congregations. Ultimately, Monahan hopes to gather thousands of signatures and present them to Ryan as he deliberates the future of capital punishment in Illinois.

But before any of that, he faces a simpler question: Will laypeople come to the forum? Do religious believers fundamentally disagree with their leaders on this issue? Do they agree, but not enough to act? Do they not know, or not care?

And with the persistent drumbeat of news about flaws in capital justice, is any of that changing?

"There is something going on," Monahan said. "I hope it is true momentum, and not just naive optimism on my part. I hope this is a sea change."

If not a sea change, it is at least a rare moment. News media have put the issue before the public. The moratorium has opened a window of opportunity.

And if any community would seem ripe for action, it's Evanston. It is no accident that this forum has sprung up near Northwestern University, where a crusading faculty and students first called attention to the flaws in the system and have kept the spotlight shining.

The buzz about Death Sentence 2000 encourages Monahan. If each sponsor brings 14 people, as Monahan has asked, the church will be filled. If not, it will be a familiar scene for death-penalty activists--a few true believers preaching to the choir.

"So far the response has just been phenomenal," he said. "Now we'll see if all this enthusiasm converts into people using their feet. Now we have to see if they'll come."